USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 51
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Foiled in his enterprise, Lee found consolation in destroy- ing the Alexandria and Orange railroad, and whatever else he could lay his hands on. The army of the Potomac fol- lowed him southward, and being delayed by rain, by the necessity of repairing the road, and by the proximity of the enemy, suffered considerable hardship, especially on the picket line. The Seventh Indiana was on the line through- out the march. One night twelve men were detailed from that regiment to patrol a mile of the road between the Rap-
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FORTITUDE OF THE SEVENTH.
pahannoek and a culvert. They put up four tents after a severe struggle with the wind, but could not get a fire started before a heavy rain was upon them. They sat on a heap made of their blankets, and held their ammunition and their crackers on their laps from dark until ten, when they were able to make their fire, and to wade along their beat. A de- scription of the night is wound up by the narrator with: "There is no telling what a fellow can stand till he tries." The good humor of the Seventh was indestructible. It could not be quenched by water, nor frozen up, nor burnt out. Roused at four in the morning of the twenty-fifth of October, the regiment marched from seven o'clock, through rain, and wading several streams, yet yelping and hallowing so ob- streperously that General Rice was compelled to issue orders forbidding the uproar, and it went into camp at four in the afternoon, in good spirits, though wet, hungry and cold, and with nothing to burn but green pine and cedar.
October 26, Buford's cavalry had a skirmish with two brig- ades of Rebel cavalry, and November 8, had a spirited en- gagement with Rebel infantry and cavalry.
A storming party from Sedgwick's corps carried the forti- fications at Rappahannock station, capturing fifteen hundred prisoners. At Kelly's ford pontoons were laid under the fire of the enemy's guns, while Ward's division waded the river, dashed upon the enemy's line, and captured it with five hun- dred prisoners.
Lee withdrew beyond the Rapidan, and dividing his army, posted Hill, with one portion, along the railroad, and in the vicinity of Charlottesville, and Ewell, with the remainder, on the left bank of Mine run, a narrow tributary to the Rapidan, with which it flows at right angles.
Meade encamped between the Rappahannock and Rapi- dan, on nearly the same ground he occupied before his last retreat. The latter river became the line of observation, across which the hostile armies watched each other.
At dawn of November 26, General Mcade again took up the march, intending to cross the Rapidan at several fords, move swiftly twenty miles by the plank and turnpike roads toward Orange Court House, and strike Ewell and Hill, who
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
were separated by an interval of several miles. Having pro- vided his troops with ten days' rations, he left his trains on the north side of the river.
Warren, with the Second corps, and French, with the Third, were to meet at Robertson's tavern, on the Orange turnpike, and being joined by the remainder of the army, were to turn the line of the Mine run defences, which did not extend to the turnpike.
The enterprise was balked by dilatoriness and awkward- ness on the part of several corps commanders. Warren reached Robertson's tavern the morning of the twenty-sev- enth, and encountered there three of Ewell's divisions. He was hard pressed, but was relieved by a portion of the First corps, which turned from its prescribed course to his aid. French, who ought promptly to have fallen in on Warren's right, exhausted double the time allotted him, and squandered the strength and spirit of his troops by delaying at the cross- ing, by wandering in the woods, by entreating for a change of orders, and by inefficient skirmishing.
During the morning of the twenty-eighth the various corps came up, and were disposed of for a determined attack; but as the enemy retreated behind his works, on the western bank of Mine run, they were obliged to advance two miles to reach his front. It was after dark and in the pelting of a cold No- vember rain that the Second, First, Third and Sixth corps formed in line of battle. As they were on unexplored ground, action was deferred until the next day, which, however, a surprise being now out of the question, was consumed in re- connoitring.
Mine Run, with Ewell's corps along its line, was no insig- nificant obstacle, for though the stream is narrow and shal- low, the first bank on the western side is abrupt in some places, marshy in others, and in many points is covered with dense thickets, while the second bank slopes upward a half mile, and its crest is one hundred feet above the surface of the water. With every needed defence and the addition of Longstreet's corps, which had been allowed full time to come up, the position did not invite assault. Warren and Sedg- wick reported the discovery of assailable points, the one on
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MINE RUN EXPEDITION.
the left, the other on the right of the enemy; and influenced Meade to order an assault on both flanks. Accordingly, General Meade directed Warren, with nearly half the army, to move at eight in the morning; the batteries of the right and centre to open at the same hour; Sedgwick to assault at nine; and three divisions of the First and Third corps, which were holding the centre, to make demonstrations, and when the flank attack should be successful, to advance.
Early in the morning of the thirtieth, the whole army was under arms; Sedgwick's force was massed to make a heavy assault, and Warren's troops were in readiness, perfectly steady, yet so assured of the desperate character of the work before them, that their names on slips of paper, were pinned to their blue blouses. They were content to die if need were but not to lie in an unknown grave, or under a misspelled name.
At the designated moment the batteries and skirmishers dashed across Mine Run, but Warren did not fire a gun nor take a step. Alarmed by the aspect of the fortifications which had been strengthened and lengthened through cach hour of delay, he, at the last moment, took upon himself the responsibility of disobeying the very orders which he had pro- posed and urged.
Of course it was all over with the Mine Run expedition. Meade crossed the Rapidan, took up his pontoons, and reached Culpepper Court House after an absence of ten as cold, hard, dreary days as the army of the Potomac ever knew.
The Seventh, Fourteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth In- diana were in the expedition. The Twentieth lost about twenty men. Lieutenant Rotramel and several others of the Fourteenth were killed. The Seventh gained not a little credit, performing the duty of skirmishers in front of the centre, crossing the stream early in the day, and remaining on the field until eight at night.
The army now went into winter quarters. During the next three months its repose was seldom disturbed. The Third, which was quartered about two miles southwest of Culpepper Court House, was employed in picket and out post duty on the right flank and in reconnoitring the country
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
in advance of our lines. A reconnoisance made by the Third in connection with the Eighth New York, in all two hun- dred and five men, on the thirty-first of January, 1864, was extended beyond Madison Court House, and across Robert- son river, pushing back the cavalry pickets and out posts of the enemy, killing one and capturing twelve. The party brought in a number of refugee families, and returned to camp the same evening, having marched fifty miles without loss.
The first week in February a futile attempt was made to capture Richmond, which had been stripped of troops in favor of North Carolina. A large cavalry force moved by way of the peninsula, while a small body of horse and two divisions of Warren's corps crossed the Rapidan to attract the attention of the Confederate army. Near Morton's ford, after wading the ice cold stream, the infantry met the enemy in a severe encounter. Our Fourteenth lost two killed and thirteen wounded.
The last day of February, a bold expedition under Kilpat- rick, and consisting of more than three thousand men, started to release the prisoners in Richmond. Three hundred picked men from Chapman's brigade were included. They con- sisted of two hundred and sixty of the Third Indiana and Forty of the Eighth Illinois, and were under the command of Major Patton. At Spottsylvania Court House, Colonel Dahlgren, with four hundred men, separated from the main body to enter Richmond from the south. Kilpatrick's march was but slightly opposed. He reached and passed the first line of the Richmond defences, passed the second line, and drew up be- fore the third line, which was but three and a half miles from the city. The enemy saluted him sharply, and a warm though not general engagement followed.
Major Patton, who was in close contact with the Rebels, felt assured that if he had been ordered to do so, and had been supported by such a force as General Kilpatrick had at his disposal, and close at hand, he could have carried the works. But Kilpatrick desisted and retreated without making determined effort. He encamped six miles from Richmond, but was almost immediately forced to get up and move on
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KILPATRICK'S RICHMOND RAID.
Not again attempting to gain rest, he hurried to the Pamunky, whence, as he found no boats, he struck down the peninsula, meeting, before many miles, troops from Fortress Monroe, who relieved him from the pressing attentions of the cnemy.
The unfortunate Dahlgren, delayed by a false guide, and sprung upon from every quarter, lost his life. At least one hundred of his men were captured.
The failure was one of those disappointments which are called blessings in disguise, as by the connivance, permission or direction of the Confederate authorities, certainly with their knowledge, several barrels of gunpowder had been placed, so as to blow up Libby prison, with its thousands of occupants-had the enterprise been a success.
On his return, Kilpatrick was relieved from his command in the Army of the Potomac. He was succeeded by General Wilson, to whose division Chapman's brigade was transferred.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
AFFAIRS AT HOME IN 1864.
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough, To mask thy monstrous visage ? Seek none, Conspiracy ; Hide it in smiles and affability .- Julius Cæsar.
Many of the troops who went out at the opening of the war, re-enlisted in the field during the hard winter of 1863 and 1864, for a new term of service, and received a furlough of thirty days. A public reception was given to them in Indianapolis, and every effort was made to show the honor in which they were held, and to comfort them for leaving again "God's country," as they delighted to call the land which had not been betrayed into rebellion. Regiments and bat- teries retained their original form and number until the with- drawal of the 'non-veterans,' when, in most cases, two, or even three, reduced organizations were consolidated into onc.
Six companies of black troops were organized in Indiana- polis in April, and turned over to the United States as a bat- talion in the Twenty-Eighth United States Infantry. Cap- tain Russell, of the Eleventh Regulars, but previously an official on the Central Railroad, was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the battalion. Other Indiana officers were Cap- tains Peddigo, Wells and Hackhiser, Adjutant Secrest, and Major Logan, who entered several months later. The bat- talion went to Alexandria, where it remained a short time in a camp of instruction.
April 6, Governor Morton received a despatch from Gen- eral Sherman, who had succeeded General Grant in com- mand of the department of the Mississippi, requesting him to notify all regiments on furlough in Indiana, to join their proper brigades: those belonging to the armies of the Ohio and the Cumberland, to go direct to Nashville; those be-
605
ONE HUNDRED DAYS REGIMENTS.
longing to the Army of the Tennessee, to proceed to Cairo, where they would receive further orders. He concluded with the following paragraph:
" The season is advaneing, and no exeuse can be enter- tained, such as waiting for more recruits. Three hundred men in time are better than a thousand too late. I will hold commanders of regiments to striet account for absence a day. Now is the time that every soldier should be in his proper place. I ask that all absentees be sent to the front."
Governor Morton replied the same day, promising eooper- ation in urging forward veteran regiments.
The exigeney suggested to Morton the expediency of re- lieving the veterans who were employed in defending forts in the rear, and in guarding railroads, by calling out and as- signing to that duty men, who having remained at home on account of the inevitable demands of business, and for the welfare of the community, would yet, during a short period, be able to serve in the field without serious detriment to the interests for which they were responsible.
A term of one hundred days suggested itself. He con- sulted with General Noble and General Terrell, and hearing that Governor Brough was in Indianapolis, sought an inter- view and laid before him the incipient plan. It met with cordial approval. The Governors of Indiana and Ohio then united in an invitation to the Governors of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, to meet for consultation at the house of Governor Morton, on Friday the fifteenth of April. The invitation was accepted, and at the consultation the proposi- tion was unanimously approved. Governor Morton and three of the other gentlemen then proceeded to Washington, and laid the plan before the Cabinet, where it met with the first opposition. Nevertheless, within two days it was ae- eepted, and on April 23 the Governor of Indiana issued a call for twenty thousand volunteers, to serve one hundred days. In response eight regiments were formed. They were the One Hundred and Thirty-Second, Colonel Vance; One Hun- dred and Thirty-Third, Colonel Hudson; One Hundred and Thirty-Fourth, Colonel Gaven; One Hundred and Thirty- Fifth, Colonel Wilson; One Hundred and Thirty-Sixth, Colo-
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
nel Foster; One Hundred and Thirty-Seventh, Colonel Rob- inson; One Hundred and Thirty-Eighth, Colonel Shannon; One Hundred and Thirty-Ninth, Colonel Humphreys.
Perhaps a few men seized the opportunity of enlisting for a short term in order to gain the honored name of 'soldier' for political use, (believing the rear to be safe,) and supported their fortitude by carrying to the field luxuries unknown to the genuine man of arms, but as a whole the hundred days' men were the most solid and patriotic men in the State, and their departure, leaving vacancies in every public place, even in pulpits, and occurring in the midst of anxiety, produced by the terrible nature of the struggles in which the whole vast military power of the Union was engaged, had a peculiar effect on society. There fell upon it a sort of stillness and melancholy. Business was dull. The streets wore a sombre aspect. Homes were gloomy. The apparel of the women was grave and sad. Loving and loyal eyes were turned southward, and hearts were strained to their utmost tension. There was something altogether awful in the close and hur- rying future. Any day might be the last; and the last might be for good or ill.
In July, in obedience to the inexorable necessities of the time, the President issued a call for five hundred thousand volunteers, announcing that after the lapse of fifty days, de- ficiencies should be supplied by a draft. The quota of Indi- ana was thirty-five thousand seven hundred and thirty-two, but was subject to a credit of ten thousand and seventy-one. Recruiting for old regiments and batteries was prosecuted with tolerable success, and re-enlisting in the field continued, but it was exceedingly difficult to form new organizations. Governor Morton endeavored to form eleven regiments of infantry, to serve one year. He succeeded in organizing the One Hundred and Fortieth, under Colonel Brady, and the One Hundred and Forty-Second, under Colonel Comparet, also one battery, the Twenty-Fifth, under Captain Sturm. The whole number of volunteers, re-enlisted veterans, naval recruits, and men who paid commutation, amounted to twelve thousand one hundred and eighty-seven. Meantime twelve
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SONS OF LIBERTY.
thousand four hundred and seventy-four men were furnished by the draft, many of these being substitutes. At the end of the year it was found that a surplus to the state's credit of one hundred and ninety remained.
Two serious obstacles checked volunteering. Friends of the Government hesitated to drain the state of its loyal men before the important elections of the fall, and the opposition, now goaded to desperation, left no stone unturned to weaken the army, or to render it useless.
Crimes of a certain complexion are never credited until they are committed, or are in some other way unmistakably exposed, not so much because of their atrocity as because of their stupidity. Nobody believes that a man will kill him- self until the poison is on his lips, or the bullet is in his brain. So there was no serious belief in the existence of a northern conspiracy until the serpent had its head up, and its fangs whetted. Indications alluded to in the public journals ex- cited, after their first appearance, little more than derision or a passing aların. Even the refusal of the Democratic major- ity in the Legislature to allow an investigation, though start- ling at the time, was afterward ascribed to an idle contumacy. The day had now come when this fond credulity was to be swept away.
The Order of the Knights of the Golden Circle, or of the American Knights, or of the Sons of Liberty, extended its baleful power through the northern, western and middle states. It was under the supreme and despotic command of the well-known traitor, C. L. Vallandigham. Except that its aims were exclusively political, the order was jesuitical in character, implicit obedience being the chief corner stone on which, as a structure, it rested, and the sanctification of the means by the end the warrant for its existence and undertak- ings. The oath of membership was paramount to the oath of allegiance. The laws of the order were more binding than the laws of the country. Seeking secession, through the ballot-box if possible, otherwise by force of arms, it taught that any state had the right to withdraw from the Union at her own will and pleasure, and that this right, having been
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
exercised, the Union no longer existed, in consequence that Mr. Lincoln was a usurper.
A few articles from the ritual of the order may show, with- out further description, the character of its aims and teachings:
"All men are endowed by the Creator with certain rights- equal only so far as there is equality in the capacity for the appreciation, enjoyment and exercise of these rights."
"In the Divine economy no individual of the human race must be permitted to encumber the earth, to mar its aspects of transcendent beauty, nor to impede the physical nor intel- lectual man, neither in himself nor in the race to which he belongs. Hence a people, upon whatever plane they may be found in the ascending scale of humanity, whom neither the divinity within them nor the inspiration of divine and beau- tiful nature around them can impel to virtuous action, and progress onward and upward, should be subjected to a just and humane servitude and tutelage to the superior race until they shall be able to appreciate the benefits and advantages of civilization."
"The Government designated the United States of Amer- ica has no sovereignty, because that is an attribute belong- ing to the people, in their respective State organizations."
"The Federal Government can exercise only delegated power, hence if those who shall have been chosen to admin- ister that Government shall assume to exercise power not delegated, they shall be regarded and dealt with as usurpers."
" It is the inherent right and inherent duty of the people to resist such officials, and if need be expel them by force of arms."
" It is incompatible with the history and nature of our sys- tem of Government that Federal authority should coerce, by arms, a sovereign State."
" Might makes right" is the sum of the whole, and is per- spicuously enough stated. The oath of initiation is clear enough, too. Secresy was enforced by the penalty of a "shameful death," which must be consummated and rounded off by quartering, the parts to be cast out respectively at the east gate, the north gate, the south gate and the west gate. About the "gates" is somewhat obscure. Charges to the Ne-
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SIGNS AND PASS WORDS.
ophyte, delivered by Knights Guardian, of whom there was one for each point of the compass, read like gibberish.
Meetings were held secretly, and under the strict wateh of sentinels. Yet hundreds of men, in full and close commu- nion, never compromised themselves by attending the lodges, it being according to the poliey of the order to hold able and responsible characters in a safe obseurity.
Signs and pass-words were used for recognition, as well as to obtain entrance into lodges. Suppose a stranger, perhaps a Rebel emissary, in the presence of one of whose kinship he is desirous, yet doubtful. He places the heel of his right foot in the hollow of his left, and folds his arms. The other, provided he is one of the initiated, assumes the same attitude. Number one extends his right foot. Number two says, "Nu." Number one replies, " Oh." Two answers, "Lac." (Calhoun backwards.) One says, "S." Two says, "L." One ex- claims, "Give me liberty!" Two responds, "Or give me death!" Whereupon they shake hands, and are brothers. Written correspondence was carried on by means of a cipher or some simple change in the use of words, as "Mules" for " United States soldiers."
So much pains was taken to make the idea of force famil- iar, and to weaken the restraints of law and even of decency, that the initials S. L. would more correctly represent Sons of License than of Liberty. In Indiana, early in the summer of 1864, the order numbered forty thousand members, of whom nearly thirty thousand were organized into regiments, and provided with arms. The chief officers were H. H. Dodd, Grand Commander; Horace Heffren, Deputy Grand Commander; and, the state being divided into four military districts, William Bowles, L. P. Milligan, Andrew Hum- phreys and Stephen Horsey, Major Generals. According to the policy of thrusting to the front comparatively insignifi. cant individuals, the most of the officers were simply agita- tors, serviceable cats' paws. A Grand Council, and in its recesses a committee of thirteen, attended to business. By voluntary contributions, Rebel gold, (more than five hundred thousand dollars of which were received through Canada,)
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
and by taxes imposed ostensibly for the establishment of newspapers and a university, the order was enabled to pro- cure ammunition and arms, which were transmitted in boxes marked, "Hardware," "Nails," or "Pick-axes," and were stowed in secure hiding-places, frequently in stables or corn- cribs.
Dr. Bowles, although an old man, was more than ordina- rily enterprising, and was lavish of time and money for the promotion of the interests of the order. He proposed that to each regiment a company of lancers should be attached, and every lance provided with a sharp hook to catch and cut a horse's bridle.
He was frequently closeted with a German chemist, called Bocking, by whose aid he planned further innovations in the modern system of civilized warfare. One Sunday morning in May, while honest people were at church, the hoary-headed Major General and the Grand Commander met the foreigner in an obscure basement in Indianapolis, and examined in- struments of murder and destruction,-infernal machines they were called,-which he exhibited and explained. With a little harmless looking box or portmanteau, the chemist gave assurances that inextinguishable fires might be kindled with- out exciting suspicion. The contents were an alarm clock with the bell removed, a gun, a tube filled with powder, a bottle of Greek fire, and a quantity of tow. The clock, set at a given time, would spring the lock of the gun, the explod- ing cap of which, through the powder and tow, would in- flame the Greek fire. Not differing in appearance from a thousand traveling sacks left in a hotel, on a steamboat or in Government offices, it would, unsuspected, faithfully execute its work, The German had two other instruments of destruc- tion,-a round and a conical shell, each containing an outer and an inner chamber, filled, the one with Greek fire, the other with powder, which, made to come in contact by the shock of a blow, would set anything combustible to burning. By a string attached to it, the round shell, which looked like a boy's India rubber ball, could be thrown into the window of a third or fourth story, or to a similar distance in a straight line. A man, walking along a deserted street or a quiet alley,
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